IMPOSING CEREMONIES AT ST. PETER'S

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9, 1 March 1900, Page 28

IMPOSING CEREMONIES AT ST. PETER' S

A Hume correspondent gives the following interesting account of the ceremony of the opening of the Holy Door by his Holiness the Pope on December 24, a brief report of which appeared in a recent issue of the N.Z. Tablet :—: — On Sunday morning, at 11 o'clock, the Pope formally inaugurated the Anno Santo or Holy Year by performing the ceremony of opening tbe Holy Door in the Basilica of St. Peter. This solemn function took place in the vestibule of the Cathedral, from which the public were excluded, but in which were assembled the members of the diplomatic body, the Roman nobility, and a number of distinguished persons who had received invitations from the Pope At half -past ten his Holiness, accompanied by the Pontifical Court, was carried from his apartments to the Robing Hall, where the Cardinals, patriarchs, bishops, and all the dignitaries of the Pontilical Court were gathered. Having put on the pontifical vestments. Leo XIII. mounted the Si'did (rextatoria. and, preceded by a long train of Cardinals and ecclesiastics, was borne to the Sistine Chapel, where were assembled the representatives of all the religious Orders and the clergy of the confraternities in Rome. After a short prayer before the Holy Sacrament, which was exposed on the altar, the Pope left the S< <lta Gt-itatoi in and intoned the ' Veni Creator.' The procession was then resumed, with the addition of the religious Orders, who carried lighted candles. Near the portico at the side of the Holy Door the Papal Throne was erected. Here the Pope wasieeeived by the Chapter of the Vatican. and he then took his seat on the throne, surrounded by all the princes of the Church. At the signal given by the great bell of St. Peter >, his Hoiine-s approached the Holy Door with two Cardinal deacons and Cardinal Serafino Vannutelli, who handed to the Pontiff the beautiful golden hanumer, which is the gift of the Italian bishops. With this the Pope, who was wearing the mitre, struck three foicible stroke^ on the door, which had previously been sawn through, and which only needed a little additional pressure from the workmen to gi\e way. The threshold of the door having been washed, the Pope, meanwhile, intoning the first words of a psalm which was taken up by the pontifical choir, his Holiness, holding in his right hand the cro-s and in the left a candle, knelt down at the now open door while the 'Te Deum ' was &ung. Then rising, he entered the Cathedral alone, followed, after a certain interval, by the Cardinals and the Bishops. At the moment all the church bells in Rome were mjl pealing. The Pope, on passing into the basilica, stopped at the Altar of I'ity, and here, in accordance with ancient usage, the Guard* of the Archconfraternities of Rome, whose office it is to keep the Holy Door during the Anno Santo, were allowed to kis-s the foot of the Supreme I'ontiff. After a brief discourse on the significance of the ceremony which had just been performed, the Pope proceeded to the Altar of the Holy Sacrament, where he offered a short prayer. and was then carried to the High Altar, from which he pronounced the Benediction. The public who thronged the Cathedral at this point broke into loud cheers for the Pope. After a >hort interval his Holiness took off his vestments, and was carried back to his apartments. All was over by one o'clock. During the two hours and a-half that the ceremony lasted the Holy Father kept up wonderfully well, though he looked very pale and worn. The aged Pontiff smiled constantly on the people and the attendant ecclesiastics, and his voice, which was weak at the beginning, gradually gained in strength towards the end.